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Just download Textpattern, but I have little doubts.
Hi everybody,
I’ve just registered here and download Textpattern.
It’s a lot of time I’m willing to change my website to a full-dynamic one. The features here listed seems to be what I’m searching for. But, still I’m not sure this is the right way to do it.
My site (http://www.negrore.com – not spamming, just in case someone want to see it to reply) has quite a few sections, divided in sub-sections. What I want to do is to give the possibility to my readers to comment on every single “article” I put on-line. There will be a “blog-section”, but I want comments even on other parts of the site. This passes, I guess, through a “wide” database, with a lot of tables… But I’m not sure! :|
My question is: Textpattern gives the freedom to manage an external database, structured in a personal way? And, second, will I have the possibility to manage the graphical part of the site with Dreamweaver templates and libraries?
Textpattern guides to great results, with many “cool things”. I looked at other sites and it seems really flexible. What I cannot understand is if a designer/developer can use it, taking full advantages from its studied and optimized code, and at the same time feel free to do in the way he wants.
I hope not to have been too wordy.
Thanks in advance to everyone who will answer me.
A smile,
Andrea
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Re: Just download Textpattern, but I have little doubts.
Hi Andrea – TextPattern does not support technically support subsections, however categories can sort of be used for that purpose. See textbook for more info on the content model
Articles are stored in a single database table. The assigned sections and categories define where articles show up on the site. You can enable comments on a per article basis. Articles are used for blog content and permanent content (sticky content.)
I’m not sure what you mean by:
the graphical part of the site…
Do you mean the development of the site? If so, I maintain a tag library for dreamweaver (You’ll also find some info on setting up xrefresh and cnk_versioning there)
If you mean adding content to the site, that’s what you use textpattern for :-)
TXPDream – A Textpattern Tag Library for Adobe Dreamweaver. (updated for 4.2.0) | jdw_if_ajax – Only serve certain parts of a page when requested with AJAX
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Re: Just download Textpattern, but I have little doubts.
Thank you for your answer, Jan.
Okay, now it’s clearer.
No problem with the database: I think I can manage the whole site with “sections” and “categories” (it means you have sections and “inside” sections categories, right?). The only think I’m worried about is if this huge table don’t slow things. And, second, what if I need a special column for a single category? I need to add it to the whole table, right? I’m not sure this is the best way to do it.
So, another question, because I didn’t understand it well: is not possible to have more tables? For example, each section a table? By what you’re saying, I understand that the answer is “no”. Just to be sure.
Finally, if I understood well, TXP is “managed” with a new list of tags, including it inside the code that a person is developing (sorry for my not-so-clear english!). Right? If so, your “tag library” is used to call TXP-tags directly in Dreamweaver during digitation or am I wrong?
Thank you very much again for your time.
A smile,
Andrea
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Re: Just download Textpattern, but I have little doubts.
Hi Andrea,
Welcome to Textpattern.
It’ll probably take you a little while to get your head round the way things are done, but with the help of the wiki documentation (especially the Tutorials and the Semantic model which explains how the TXP pieces fit together) you’ll be up and running in no time. And the forum here is an enourmous help if you get stuck.
What I want to do is to give the possibility to my readers to comment on every single “article” I put on-line.
That’s a standard feature of TXP. You can enable comments on all articles, or you can choose to only offer them in certain sections (via conditional tags or by using a different page template for your sections) or even turn commenting on/off in individual articles.
This passes, I guess, through a “wide” database, with a lot of tables…
Sorry, not quite sure what you mean here. Unless you want to get freaky with Textpattern you don’t need to concern yourself with the underlying table structure of the database. You choose what content goes where from the graphical admin interface. First define your Sections, Page templates, Categories, and Stylesheets. Then, when you write content you assign each piece to a Section and it appears there for the world to read.
Textpattern gives the freedom to manage an external database, structured in a personal way?
Natively, no. Textpattern uses its own database structure to manage your content. If you want to extend this with extra tables or even another database (and you know some PHP) then you can do so if you wish. Plugins often make their own tables so if you want functionality that’s not part of the core feature set, explore the plugin repository first to possibly save yourself writing something that’s already been done.
TXP is “managed” with a new list of tags
Yes. It uses XML-style tags to fetch and format the content from the database. You can add any suitable (X)HTML markup you please among the tags to make your page look the way you want. The Tag reference is the place to find them all and marvel at their greatness :-)
Hope some of that helps.
Last edited by Bloke (2010-05-28 08:46:03)
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Re: Just download Textpattern, but I have little doubts.
(it means you have sections and “inside” sections categories, right?)
Not really: sections and categories are quite different concepts. Sections are used to tie the page and article together, while categories sole purpose is organizational, and not even directly tied to sections. An article needs a section, but it doesn’t need a category.
Using conditional tags (specifically: txp:if_section) you can make categories section aware: kinda faking subsections: so that they are “inside”.
your “tag library” is used to call TXP-tags directly in Dreamweaver during digitation or am I wrong?
My plugin allows for code completion within dreamweaver: you can see a somewhat daft example here
Last edited by JanDW (2010-05-31 18:35:00)
TXPDream – A Textpattern Tag Library for Adobe Dreamweaver. (updated for 4.2.0) | jdw_if_ajax – Only serve certain parts of a page when requested with AJAX
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Re: Just download Textpattern, but I have little doubts.
Thank you Jan, and thank you Bloke (sorry, I saw your comment right now).
It’s installed on my Mac. My site “has been killed” and I’m going to build my first TXP-site.
I found out that it’s possible to install two or more TXPs on the same site. That’s a good point, just to manage particular sections with another database. The interface is simple and functional: I like it.
What I don’t like is to work “outside Dreamweaver”, I have to admit. But scrolling all the functions and add-ons I can manage directly from TXP, I thought it’s due to change a little my working-process.
You did a very good job, all together! :) And, above all, everything looks and feel… clean. Impressive.
I’m trying to go on a little bit, using TXP and reading the manual. I don’t want to bore again with general questions I can solve by myself, studying. In any case, yours are precious points to start (I cannot understand everything of what you’re saying, but I’m sure it’s a personal, momentary ignorance about TXP-philosophy).
Thank you again for your help. :)
A smile,
Andrea
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Re: Just download Textpattern, but I have little doubts.
What I don’t like is to work “outside Dreamweaver”, I have to admit. But scrolling all the functions and add-ons I can manage directly from TXP, I thought it’s due to change a little my working-process.
Hi Andrea – Why do you need to work outside dreamweaver? Have you seen Setting up your IDE: further suggestion part on txpdream where I refer to cnk_versioning and xrefresh? cnk_versioning dumps your pages/forms/css into editable files and xrefresh can be setup (if your running a webserver on your local system) to automatically refresh your browser when a change in the filesystem is detected.
Last edited by JanDW (2010-05-31 19:44:48)
TXPDream – A Textpattern Tag Library for Adobe Dreamweaver. (updated for 4.2.0) | jdw_if_ajax – Only serve certain parts of a page when requested with AJAX
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Re: Just download Textpattern, but I have little doubts.
So, fantastic!
As I said, I’m under way… with my backpack full of ignorance. No, I didn’t see that part yet. Thank you for your umpteenth suggestion.
Tomorrow I’ll read that part before doing anything else. Thank you.
A smile,
Andrea
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Re: Just download Textpattern, but I have little doubts.
Andrea: Pls. check the thread Post Articles to Static Page ‘Categories’ because some basic answers regarding sections and categories have been answered previously there already with some other wording.
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